BBC News Cumbria

Covid-19 vaccines will be rolled out across the North East and Cumbria and people could be seen at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary from next week, it has emerged.

According to an NHS presentation seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the hospital will be among the first in the country to be used as a vaccine hub, after the UK approved the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on Wednesday.

Middlesbrough’s James Cook Hospital is named as a site to deliver the vaccine in the first week of the roll-out, with North Tyneside General Hospital and the Freeman Hospital in the second week.

The NHS presentation also lists Whitehaven or Carlisle as a hub in week one of the process.

NHSCopyright: NHS

A report by Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust chief executive, Dame Jackie Daniel, said: “In October, Newcastle Hospitals was appointed as the lead provider for the development and provision of a Covid-19 Vaccine Hub for the North East and North Cumbria.

“A multi-professional and multi-agency programme team has been brought together to plan how a vaccination programme will work for the region, and is doing so working closely with partners from across the Integrated Care System.”

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People in care homes, along with the staff who work in them, are expected to be among the first to receive the jabs.

Health and social care workers and adults who are extremely vulnerable due to health conditions are also a high priority.

There's enough snow to build quite a few snowmen in parts of the Yorkshire Dales this morning.

This footage was filmed by Thomas Beresford out in the higher parts of North Yorkshire:

A woman from Ulverston who gave up her job to keep her mother's foster family together has been named as Cumbria's Foster Carer of the Year.

Stephanie Lane, 35, grew up with her mum working as a foster carer from the age of 11.

When her mum Janet died last year, Stephanie trained as a carer so she could keep the three children her mum has fostered since they were young together in the home they'd always known.

Cumbria County CouncilCopyright: Cumbria County Council

Quote Message: Mum cared long-term for two teenaged siblings and also a little boy with additional needs and they had all been with her since they were tiny - all they’d really ever known was mum.

Mum cared long-term for two teenaged siblings and also a little boy with additional needs and they had all been with her since they were tiny - all they’d really ever known was mum.

Quote Message: It was a no brainer for me to take over where mum left off.” from Stephanie Lane Foster carer

It was a no brainer for me to take over where mum left off.”

• Temperature at 3000 ft: Around -1C (30F), rising to 1 or 2C (34 to 36F) this afternoon.
• Winds: North, backing north-west, moderate to fresh, with gusts of 20-30 mph.
• Cloud: Cloud bases above the summits, but will tend to lower to around 2300ft (700m) towards sunset, especially across the north-western Lakes.
• Weather: Any sunshine will soon give way to cloud moving in from the west. This may bring a few spots of rain in the afternoon, as it tends to thicken and lower. There's the chance of the odd brighter spell later in the afternoon towards sunset.
• Visibility: Very good or excellent, but becoming poor on the higher peaks towards dusk, as the cloud lowers

Debenhams stores are set to close, the BBC understands, following the failure of last-ditch efforts to rescue the ailing department store chain.

It means all 12,000 employees are likely to lose their jobs when the chain's 124 shops cease trading.

In Cumbria there are branches in Barrow, Carlisle and Workington.

The jobs are set to go over the coming months unless the administrators do a deal for all or parts of the business as the process unfolds.

Numbers of a species of fish which dates back to the Ice Age and was on the brink of extinction have increased, a survey has shown.

The fish found in Ennerdale Water are thought to be the last spawning in an English river.

With money from fishing licence sales, the Environment Agency, Forestry Commission and Wild Ennerdale have worked together on a restoration project to boost the numbers.

This year’s survey showed Charr numbers have increased significantly.

Peter McCollough, fisheries officer at the Environment Agency, said: "This project is a great example of how money from fishing licence sales is used to protect and improve fisheries.”

Students at Cumbria University will start being tested for coronavirus this week so they can go home safely for the Christmas break.

The university is hosting on-campus testing and students are encouraged to take two tests, 72 hours apart, before travelling home as soon as a negative result is confirmed.

The Government wants students across the UK to go home during a travel window between 3 and 9 December.

It's expected that thousands will start returning to Cumbria from other universities later this week.

The Lake District National Park Authority (LDNPA) has revealed it plans to be carbon neutral within five years.

The authority told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that it had already taken steps towards its goal including replacing its fleet of pool cars with electric vehicles, installing electric charging points and adding solar panels onto its buildings.

Chief executive Richard Leafe said he was very positive the plan could be achieved by 2025.

He said: “As a national park authority we have been working to reduce our carbon budget for the past decade and, as always, we set ourselves challenging targets.

“I’m pleased to confirm we are well on the way to achieving this and have already reduced our carbon footprint by 44% since 2010."

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